Junk removal pricing in Durham Region is more consistent than it looks, once you understand that everyone is pricing the same two things: how much space your stuff takes in a trailer, and how heavy it is.
Here's what it actually costs in 2026, and why.
Prices by load size
These are our published rates across Durham Region, before HST:
| Load size | What it looks like | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Single item or minimum load | One mattress, one couch, one appliance, a few bags | $109–$169 |
| Quarter trailer | A bedroom of furniture, a modest garage tidy-up | $209–$309 |
| Half trailer | A full room, a substantial garage or basement clearout | $379–$489 |
| Three-quarter trailer | A large multi-room cleanout | $499–$619 |
| Full 15-yard trailer | Whole-home or estate cleanout in one trip | $629–$799 |
| Multiple trailers | Large property clearouts | $749–$1,500 per trip |
A full load is a 15-yard trailer. To picture it: roughly eight three-seater sofas, or a two-car garage emptied out.
What the other companies in Durham charge
Worth knowing the market, because it shows how consistent it is:
- TRUCK IT publishes single items from $89, an eighth load from $209, a quarter from $299, a half from $449, three-quarters from $559, and a full trailer from $659.
- Junk Runners in Oshawa has a $118 minimum, a half load at $418, a full at $558, and a mega-full at $718, all before HST.
- Junk 'Of' Urs quotes single mattresses and large items around $80, appliances $80–$120, partial garages $150–$350, and full basements up to $700 or more.
Notice that every one of those figures is a *starting* price. That's the industry norm, and it's worth understanding why before you use it to compare.
The problem with "from $89"
A starting price is the cost of the smallest job that could technically qualify: one light item, ground floor, short carry, nothing heavy, no refrigerant. It's not dishonest — that job exists. It's just almost never the job you have.
What happens next is predictable. Someone arrives, looks at the actual pile, factors in the weight and the stairs, and the number goes up. By that point you've booked a morning off work and you're standing in your own driveway. Most people say yes.
This is the entire reason we quote from photos instead. If your job is a $109 job, you find that out from your kitchen table. If it's a $489 half load, you find that out from your kitchen table too, and you can call someone else if you want.
Why disposal fees drive the pricing
Every price in this industry has to cover what the Region charges to take the material. Those fees are public, and they explain the structure:
- $175 per tonne for general residential and commercial waste
- $7 minimum for loads under 40 kg, then $1.40 per additional 8 kg
- $375 per tonne for fill material — soil, brick, gravel, sand, concrete
- $250 per tonne for mixed loads containing any fill
- $20 per unit for anything holding refrigerant: fridges, freezers, air conditioners
- Free for electronics, household hazardous waste, up to ten tires, and polystyrene
A packed 15-yard trailer of household material weighs roughly 1.5 to 2 tonnes. At $175 per tonne, that's $265–$350 in disposal alone, before labour, fuel, or the truck. That's why a full load can't cost $400 and still be a real business.
Fill material is the one that surprises people. At $375 per tonne it's more than double, and heavy material reaches that weight long before it fills the trailer. A quarter trailer of broken concrete can cost more to dispose of than a completely full trailer of furniture. That's why heavy material gets quoted by weight rather than by load size — pricing it by volume would just be guessing.
What changes your price
Beyond volume, four things move the number:
Weight. Concrete, brick, soil, sod, tile, plaster, and shingles. See above.
Access. A third-floor walk-up with no elevator takes far longer than a driveway pickup of the same volume. So does a long carry from a back yard to wherever the truck can legally park.
Disassembly. A sectional that won't fit through the door has to come apart first.
Special items. Hot tubs, pianos, safes, and shed or deck teardowns are always quoted individually because they need extra hands or extra equipment.
Junk removal versus renting a bin or dumpster
Worth clearing up the vocabulary first, because people use four words for two different services. A bin, a dumpster, and a skip all mean the same thing here — a container dropped in your driveway that you fill yourself. Which word you use mostly depends on where you grew up; Ontario companies tend to say bin, American ones say dumpster, and skip is British and Irish. Junk hauling and trash hauling are the other service, the one we do: a crew arrives, loads it, and takes it away in one visit.
The honest comparison:
A bin in Durham runs roughly $350–$600 for a week depending on size, and you may need a municipal permit if it sits on the street rather than your driveway. You load it yourself, on your own schedule.
Junk removal costs more per cubic yard but includes two people, the lifting, the carrying, the disposal, and the sweep-up. It's done in an hour rather than a week.
For a few items or a single room, junk removal wins on almost every measure. For a renovation that generates debris over several weeks, a bin is usually the better call. For a full house clearout, it depends entirely on whether you have the time and the back for it.
One thing that catches people out either way: a bin's rental price is not its total price. Most bin rentals include a weight allowance and charge overage on top, so a driveway skip filled with tile, plaster, or shingles can land well above the quoted rate. That is the same tipping fee we pay, just billed to you afterwards instead of built into the number up front.
Ways to actually pay less
Put everything in one place. If it's already in the driveway or garage rather than spread through a basement, the job is quicker and lands at the lower end of its band. Carrying is included either way — but if you were going to move it anyway, do it before we arrive.
Separate the heavy material. Keeping concrete, brick, and soil in their own pile means the rest of your load gets priced as ordinary waste rather than dragging the whole thing into a higher disposal bracket.
Take the free stuff yourself. Electronics, household hazardous waste, and up to ten tires cost nothing to drop at a Regional facility. If you're already making a trip, that material is genuinely free to dispose of.
Send whatever the curb will take. Every Durham municipality collects some large items free, and metal, electronics, and porcelain have no item limit at all in the six the Region collects for. Splitting those off the pile shrinks what you're paying us to move. Our curbside lookup tool shows what your municipality takes and what it caps you at.
Book one bigger job, not three small ones. Three separate minimum loads cost more than one half load holding the same material. If you know more is coming, wait and do it in one go.
Get a real quote before you book. Send photos. Fifteen seconds, no obligation, and you'll know which band you're in rather than which starting price you were shown.
Get a photo quote for your job or read what we can and can't take.
Frequently asked questions
We run junk removal across Durham Region — Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington, Uxbridge, Scugog, and Brock. We price jobs from customer photos so the number you're told is the number you pay.